Samantha Wagner
Fogleman
EDC 102H
15 September 2009
"Write" On!
High school. What more needs to be said. Two simple words that connote different meanings for different people. It can be four years of torture or four years of fun. For me, it was neither. High school was four years of loneliness. Being ostracized by the cliques, none of which I fit into, and being slightly more intelligent than your average student made me a target. I was the bottom of the totem pole. I didn't really fit in anywhere. But that all changed junior year when an teaching assistant position aspired me to be an English teacher.
Walking into Honors English 11, I knew I was at home. English has always been my favorite class. I loved writing and had a knack for spelling and grammar. Before eleventh grade, I had never been asked to write an extensive research paper. When the teacher told us we were going to be writing a research paper on The Tragedy Macbeth, everyone looked at her dumbfounded. I on the other hand, smiled, anticipating the coming challenge.
The teacher stood at the head of the class, explaining the MLA format and the rubric and all that other garble that goes into writing a paper. As the class complained about the amount of research needed and the specifics of MLA format, I sat back and tried not to laugh. After all, this was really no different than any other research paper. Read the play, take notes on a certain theme (one which you picked off a list - I mean how easy is that), and then research that theme in Shakespeare's works. To me this was no difficult task.
I went to work on it, asking questions here and there and consulting the teacher when needed. I used the concepts I had learned early on and the vocabulary I had been building all my life (boredom lead me to read the dictionary on more than one occasion - nerdy I know). Prior knowledge from elementary school came flooding back. All those pesky word wall words, spelling tests, the lessons on how to use an index and find a word in the dictionary, it inundated my mind with knowledge I thought I had long forgotten.
Seeing as I had such a memory for things most of my peers had discarded about their previous years of learning, my teacher asked me to help some of my classmates who were falling behind. I proofread papers, helped them swap out overly used words for bigger and better ones, and helped them cite sources in their bibliography. This classroom setting was where I began to be who I was. I was no longer at the bottom of the totem pole and the kids who teased me before were now asking for my help. The balance of power had shifted.
That power shift made me hungry for more. The following year I became a teacher aide, helping the previous year’s English teacher in her classroom. I corrected tests from the answer key and helped that year’s juniors cite their bibliographies. Senior year as a teacher aide really made me aspire to be a teacher. Working with my fellow classmates, helping them figure out the best way to write their papers, tailoring my examples to fit something they would understand, all those practices I did with them prepared me for the future. In a few years I will be preparing lesson plans, tailoring them to the needs of students, doing the same things I did in that classroom last year.
Overall, the one thing I will take away from that experience is that everyone doesn't think like I do. Not everyone understands the same way. For me, that research paper wasn't hard, but for others it was difficult. Being in that classroom taught me that not everyone thinks the same and everyone learns differently. It taught me about patience and tolerance of every one's learning style. My senior year in that junior English class taught me skills that I will take to my own classroom and it is one experience I will surely not forget.
Fogleman
EDC 102H
15 September 2009
"Write" On!
High school. What more needs to be said. Two simple words that connote different meanings for different people. It can be four years of torture or four years of fun. For me, it was neither. High school was four years of loneliness. Being ostracized by the cliques, none of which I fit into, and being slightly more intelligent than your average student made me a target. I was the bottom of the totem pole. I didn't really fit in anywhere. But that all changed junior year when an teaching assistant position aspired me to be an English teacher.
Walking into Honors English 11, I knew I was at home. English has always been my favorite class. I loved writing and had a knack for spelling and grammar. Before eleventh grade, I had never been asked to write an extensive research paper. When the teacher told us we were going to be writing a research paper on The Tragedy Macbeth, everyone looked at her dumbfounded. I on the other hand, smiled, anticipating the coming challenge.
The teacher stood at the head of the class, explaining the MLA format and the rubric and all that other garble that goes into writing a paper. As the class complained about the amount of research needed and the specifics of MLA format, I sat back and tried not to laugh. After all, this was really no different than any other research paper. Read the play, take notes on a certain theme (one which you picked off a list - I mean how easy is that), and then research that theme in Shakespeare's works. To me this was no difficult task.
I went to work on it, asking questions here and there and consulting the teacher when needed. I used the concepts I had learned early on and the vocabulary I had been building all my life (boredom lead me to read the dictionary on more than one occasion - nerdy I know). Prior knowledge from elementary school came flooding back. All those pesky word wall words, spelling tests, the lessons on how to use an index and find a word in the dictionary, it inundated my mind with knowledge I thought I had long forgotten.
Seeing as I had such a memory for things most of my peers had discarded about their previous years of learning, my teacher asked me to help some of my classmates who were falling behind. I proofread papers, helped them swap out overly used words for bigger and better ones, and helped them cite sources in their bibliography. This classroom setting was where I began to be who I was. I was no longer at the bottom of the totem pole and the kids who teased me before were now asking for my help. The balance of power had shifted.
That power shift made me hungry for more. The following year I became a teacher aide, helping the previous year’s English teacher in her classroom. I corrected tests from the answer key and helped that year’s juniors cite their bibliographies. Senior year as a teacher aide really made me aspire to be a teacher. Working with my fellow classmates, helping them figure out the best way to write their papers, tailoring my examples to fit something they would understand, all those practices I did with them prepared me for the future. In a few years I will be preparing lesson plans, tailoring them to the needs of students, doing the same things I did in that classroom last year.
Overall, the one thing I will take away from that experience is that everyone doesn't think like I do. Not everyone understands the same way. For me, that research paper wasn't hard, but for others it was difficult. Being in that classroom taught me that not everyone thinks the same and everyone learns differently. It taught me about patience and tolerance of every one's learning style. My senior year in that junior English class taught me skills that I will take to my own classroom and it is one experience I will surely not forget.